Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - FANTASY SHOW: Jordan Addison's impact on the Vikings is clear

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Mike Schopp of ADP Chasing and WGR 550 in Buffalo joins for this week's Fantasy Show. Matthew Coller and Mike Schopp discuss Jordan Addison's impact on the Vikings' offense. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fandul. And this is, once again, our Purple Insider Fantasy Shope with Mike Shope. We got a lot to talk about Mike, of course, from WGR 550 and quite the contest last week in Buffalo and national television again for the bills. Imagine, you know, when I was there, the fans used to say, oh, it's. the league hates us and they can't stand us. Why won't they put Thad Lewis on national TV? I don't understand it. And now it's all I see is the hometown bills.

Also ADP chasing should mention that as well. So that was a great, great game between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots. We can get into Atlanta in Buffalo, a fascinating matchup. But why don't we start with this, Mike? The Vikings are on their by week. We do not know who's. playing quarterback when they return from the byweek. And we might not know until QB1 wanders out onto the field if coaches are coaches.

But there are some things to talk about specifically Jordan Addison has continued to be Jordan Addison upon his return. And I think whether it's from a fantasy perspective or it's from the perspective of the Minnesota Vikings offense, these last two weeks, you've just seen it. Gestures at Jordan Addison, everybody. this guy is very good at football and the route that he ran, the catch that he makes to win the game, a couple of short passes to get the ball in his hands, which I think is a development from KOC. We're just seeing the things out of Jordan Addison that we would have expected despite him coming back from the suspension.

Yeah, I mean, that was a great play to win the game against Cleveland. It was Cleveland's game for much of it. I told you last week I was not here for betting the the Vikings on Fandul minus the three and a half. And guess what? They covered in the end. So great play from Addison. For much of the game, I was as an Addison guy in fantasy, annoyed that it was actually Jalen Naylor, who was getting the stuff because you see the single digit.

Like, uh, but it's, there's on a team that's had such a narrow route tree for a couple of years, you just kind of assume it's going to be Jefferson and Addison and Hawkinson, you know, the law firm. and there's no one else involved. I mean, K.J. Osborne was a thing. But Naylor had a couple of plays there. But in the end, this is something in fantasy, a lot of analysts fixate on the usage.

Okay, well, how many snaps did this player get? What was their route run percentage, target share, all that kind of thing. What sometimes gets left out is how did they do? And so Addison, game, on the line, season on the line a little bit. I think so. The whole venture of going to the UK for two weeks

sort of put to the test against the Browns. And he just, that, that hip turn on that catch was just so good. So nice for Addison. I think in fantasy, he's still not like a must start. I mean, obviously the Vikings are off

this week. But it remains to be seen, I mean, there's obviously, There's so many questions about their offense and what changes, but, you know, arrows up, if not wheels up for Addison. You'll get Aaron Jones back. You might end up with McCarthy. Like, I don't know. What do you think they'll want to do? You think they're going to take it to next Sunday?

I mean, I see no reason not to if you're Kevin O'Connell. I remember once upon a time, even though the entire world knew that Sam Bradford was going to start for the Vikings. Mike Zimmer was extremely upset that we had noticed Sam Bradford taking first team reps, even though on the conference call with Mike McCarthy that day, Mike was like, yeah, they're probably going to start Sam Bradford. So that's who we're preparing for. We're not preparing for Sean Hill is why would you even prepare for Sean Hill? How do you prepare for Sean Hill?

You can't. So. No offense. But I mean, even though we all knew who was starting, he was still not happy and wouldn't announce it until, you know, the minute that the game was starting. So I would assume that O'Connell's going to take the option and do that as well, which is certainly something within the rules. But it does change a little bit of what we think of the production, I think, unless O'Connell stays with the way that he handled Carson Wentz, which would be trying to get the ball

out of his quarterback's hands quickly into his receiver's hands as fast as possible to just get these guys touches and then work the downfield stuff as it comes when you have Justin Jefferson catching short out passes or you have Jordan Addison on that final drive. I'm sure you noticed two different times. They ran a bubble screen or they had him go across the formation. Kind of a Kyle Shanahan classic thing to do or Sean McVay comes across in motion. Oh, that's man coverage. Swing it out to him for five yards on a third down. That stuff that they haven't done a ton of. And I think O'Connell realized we're probably going to need to do more of those things this year, which should impact the number of catches that someone, Addison, someone like Addison gets.

Also, when you talk about that catch, for there are some guys who when they jump up in the air, it seems like they're up there forever. And that's, that's Addison. Like from the day one of the first day that he got here was like that. When he would go up to make a contested catch, it just seemed like he stayed in the air longer than the other person, which may not make sense with physics, but you know he's going to catch touchdowns. Like I don't think that this is a random thing

that he's had these big years. And I remember we talked about it last year, like, will he regress with touchdowns? When they get down there, everybody pays so much attention to Jefferson that Addison ends up being Johnny on the spot a lot. Well, that's his gift. I mean, no slight on him.

But the fact that he has Jefferson, a lot of receivers in the league could be that player. but he has Justin Jefferson on his team, and that makes a big difference there. You know, I like, I mean, I'm with you on all of this. I just feel like right now the big one is, do they go to McCarthy? And you said last week, I think,

that you thought they would after this game, or they should. If not they would, that they should. Should. And it's against Philadelphia in week eight, week seven uh whatever seven right right week seven six yeah yeah yep sorry yeah the next game is against the eagles and

they're secondary we'll see what happens tonight is we're recording on thursday morning they play the giants can the giants even sort of do something that makes you know what the eagles can be but the whole season's kind of been they're vulnerable and i just feel like with mccarthy it needs to happen right now or it's not going to happen like the guy had he had the injury and that's not nothing but he got the free year like mahomes did although mahomes wasn't injured he got the free year to sort of watch and learn and he's got the right coach he's he's got a version of andy reed in o'connell like it should and he's got the weapons like it should happen almost never in the history of the NFL has a as a quarterback succeeded

you know long term in the kind of situation he's in where he's loses the rookie year to an injury. And then he's benched. Maybe you don't want to call it benched, but he was quasi-benched here. And I mean, you were saying that you thought McCarthy should or would start the next game. And that made sense. I mean, what are you trying to build?

Are you trying to get through a season to go nine and eight in the NFC North with Carson Wentz? I hope not. So it should be McCarthy. And nobody in NFL history are almost. nobody has made it through long term as somebody who has, you know, had the first year, basically kind of a red shirt year, and then they get to the second year and they're already sat down.

Like those are red flags on him. So he's got the weapons, put him on the field and find out because, you know, you and I worked together in Buffalo in years where the most important thing was to find out what you had. Even Josh Allen was not given the week one start as a seventh overall pick in his year because Nathan Peterman had a better preseason. Like, think about how crazy that is. Peterman had to be so bad in the actual season opener that Allen got in and then the bills decided, well, there's just no other choice is to play Alan. I've always wanted to know what the plan was.

Like, what were they sort of hoping to do, week six? like what they did not expect to have a good season anyway uh McCarthy has a lot going for him and if we're back to Carson Wentz for the Eagles and the Chargers the next two weeks I think that that might be a bad sign yeah I think so too but then I go back and forth because I'm looking around the league and I'm seeing all these former first round draft pick quarterbacks playing for somebody else and every one of those has their own story like the New York Giants have just been a mess in terms of their roster, their weapons, their line, their coaching, like everything has been bad around Daniel Jones. And now Indianapolis is a good team. They also run like crazy and have the league leader

in rushing, good defense, all those things. Baker Mayfield has grown up a lot. You go back to some of his press conferences in Cleveland where he was not acting like the pro type of QB1, but also there's a lot of development that has to go into this. And I think sometimes guys come out into the league, a Brock Purdy, or maybe we've seen a little bit with Bo Nix. They're 24, Jaden Daniels, they're 24, and they've played a lot more football. It's like being in the minors for a few years as opposed to if you were in the MLB draft and you went from high school to Major League Baseball. That was more of the jump that J.J. McCarthy was making.

At the same time, in training camp and preseason, he played well. And in the first week, when you watch the tape against the Bears, it was not a lot of bad decisions it was not a lot of horrible timing it was kind of just things weren't getting going and then when they did they win the game so it's one bad game out of two games that we're dealing with here to me that's not enough to say like up throw my hands up sorry guys b u s t it's over play carson that's just not enough for me and that's why i would like to see him get back in also with derisaw donovan jackson's coming back addison you've established a shorter passing game erin jones We'll see about Aaron Jones when he's coming back.

But even then, like, Xavier Scott is a thing now for this team. So you've got your full group. Go play and see what happens. I agree. Do head coaches always think that way that I'm not so sure? And if you guys have been wearing hats or trying different haircuts in order to cover up for your hair loss, trust me, I totally feel you. And maybe you've tried different hair loss solutions and nothing works.

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uncommon goods. We're all out of the ordinary. No, they don't always think that way, but I think that that tends to correlate with how strong their footing is. And how many coaches have stronger footing than O'Connell? They always say, you know, oh, well, if this guy got fired, he would be hired by somebody else the next day. I think with O'Connell, that would literally be true. Yes. So he should, I don't know the dynamics of the front office like you would in Minnesota, but from the outside, would say he should be able to do whatever he wants and he should be able to have the vision which a lot of coaches don't have that luxury uh when they walk in so he's he's earned that i think i love the way o'connell laid it out when i asked him about it the other day where he basically

said if i watch j j mccarthy practice these next two weeks and he does the things that he's supposed to do then it sounded to me like he didn't finish the sentence like then i'll start him but if I don't see those things, then I won't. And if he doesn't, I don't think that that means it's over for Jay J. McCarthy. It might just need a little more time behind the scenes. But I mean, historically, though, you're right. These things happen much faster than you would ever logically think. If there's one coach, though, that can navigate, playing it slower with a quarterback

without kind of freaking out, losing his mind, it probably is Ocom. And I'm just such a fan. of his. I think it was the Netflix quarterback series that featured Cousins year one. And I think it was the game in Buffalo where the Vikings won. The only way the Bills ever lose a home game is like some of these series of miraculous events. And that game was quintessentially that. And Cousins did something that, you know, irked O'Connell. And the interaction between the two on the sideline was just like really good.

We're in the wake of the Jonathan Gannon meltdown. on Di Mercado for Arizona. Like what an absolute embarrassment to coaching that was, I would say. And his own team fined him a hundred grand for his behavior. You're down bad when that happens. But O'Connell was so right there. Like he had to get through to cousins.

This is what you needed to do there. This is what we're going for. And you missed it. But he didn't like get in his face. He was almost like sort of to the side, if I remember right, talking about that. So I really like his style. Well, I think that there's nobody better when it comes to communicating with the quarterback.

And also I saw a clip of Daniel Jones talking about his own progression with, I think it was with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth. And it was definitely an indictment on the New York Giants. But he said that even being in the building and seeing the preparation and the detail and all the things that went into a game plan for O'Connell, he said that he learned a lot from that. and has taken further steps in his career in part because of that. So it's very real. Like his handling of quarterbacks is extremely real.

And that doesn't mean, though, that he's magic. And we saw that from Josh Dobbs and we saw that from Nick Mullins, guys who have career 300 win percentages. You're not going to, you're not going to just wave the magic wand. And that's the thing is that you can lead the quarterback to the reeds, but you can't make him for him, which I think O'Connell, that drives him crazy as a guy who is six foot five and once ran a four, five or something

at the combine. It drives him crazy that he can't go out there himself. Just throw it here. But. Yeah. Well, that reflects on McCarthy too. I mean, that's the point that he should. He had that ear in the building too, right? I mean, he should be able to have some benefit from having been there. And by the way, so I was basically, I was third row for Patriots bills that Josh Dobbs is a big guy. Oh, huge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who knew

that the Patriots have these amazing character actors on their team like DeVito and Dobbs like they have these great sort of they would be a great sitcom I think that this current edition of the Patriots but I was you know standing for the anthem and there's Dobbs like kind of right in front of me like wow that guy's way bigger than I thought oh yeah uh if Josh Dobbs I think was not half astronaut and full quarterback uh this goes back a little ways but I interviewed a professor who taught aerospace engineering and asked him like with the workload how hard would it to be to play football too and he said I have no idea how any person ever played football with this workload like this is like being an NFL quarterback only for going to space so he's he's as impressive as a human being that I've ever

run across and that also kind of goes for McCarthy that he's not an astronaut but when you're around McCarthy you totally get it like you see all of it I mean it's it's genuine it's real it's the leadership and the enthusiasm and the positivity and the energy that that guy displays and every you know he gets guys to believe in him and that kind of thing but the NFL often comes down to two and a half seconds and if you can't get that football out in two and a half seconds then you you're to make a Buffalo reference your Trent Edwards or you're Rob Johnson where you're talented enough but you can't get that ball out and that's what it's going to come down to with him because everything should be there O'Connell has figured out

some things they've got the receivers they've got the line and that's why i think you have to put him in and start to figure that out and try also not to overreact when it's hey oh there was a guy open that he missed or the read that he missed or a checkdown that he missed like you're going to have to work through those things yeah or you're even if i may help perhaps try to segue into more of a fantasy slant here you're just in fields who incredibly i saw this week in games he's he has started where the other team scored at least 21 points. He's 0.26. Oh, and 26. That's insane. That's insane. Justin Fields was my, by a lot, number one drafted fantasy quarterback.

And I'm scared. Like, it's been garbage time, really, for Fields. Like, they've been down in the fourth quarter bad in most of these games, not the opener. And of course, he missed the game. I say, of course, like we all know this, uh, against 10. Tampa, and that was the same thing for the Jets. The Jets keep Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson on the field in these bad losses, which thank goodness, because if not, like, Wilson would be a bust or, you know, maybe close to it at this point, too. But instead, you're getting 30 fantasy points a week from fields.

You're getting 20 from Wilson. Hall is good enough so far, but I'm scared for this. Like, they're going to play Denver in London this weekend. that sounds like a bad combination. And he was a popular mid-round pick. Part of the thinking was he wasn't benchable. But if they're 0 and 5, he's benchable. Like they might just want to be done with it,

which means Tyrod Taylor. I don't know if that's better. But it's a little bit. I wish they'd won one or two of these closer games because then I would feel fine about fields. But at 0 and 5, like they could be thinking about 101 in the draft at this point. It should be probably. I mean, Fields is a great example of who knows how long to go with these guys or what's correctable

or what's not. I tend to think that now, I'm not saying this about McCarthy because he played two games. But like Justin Fields, when I would watch him play against the Vikings, I would say, this guy can't see the field. He just can't. He cannot see where that ball is supposed to go. And every once in a while, he would just throw up a prayer and someone would catch it. then the all 22 freaks would be like, oh, look at this arm talent. Like, I don't think he even saw that. He just, the receiver made a play with McCarthy. I mean, that's what it's going to come down to is can you see the field in two and a half

seconds and not three seconds because that's, that's sports, right? Like, it's the small details, the guy who misses, you know, three putts in a round versus the guy who misses two. You're talking about a PGA star versus a guy barely on the tour. Like, that's how all sports work. but you're not going to teach McCarthy how to do it more likely than not just in practice. Now, if they said a few weeks of practice to get them back to 100%, get them back in the mode and go against the ones in practice, I could buy that.

If they said we really don't want them to face two teams in four days, I could buy that. But the next game after that is Detroit. Is that easy? It's never going to be easy. That's the whole point. So it's a fascinating situation, and I don't know how O'Connell's going to handle it because it's going to be based on what he sees away from us. Like we don't get to see what he sees to make his decision. But I think clearly better for the long term of the franchise to play J.J. McCarthy.

So there is no McCarthy. There's no wents. We won't know that until next week. But we do have other football games that everybody gets to watch. I think the by week is always great for Vikings fans. you don't have to be enraged by anything. You and I should hang out on Sunday. The bills play Monday night.

We should just hang out. Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. Well, one of my buddies is flying out to play some golf this weekend. So get on the plane. Come on out and play some fall golf. It's going to be, I hope, nice weather.

So let's, let us start with Seattle at Jacksonville. The suddenly relevant Jacksonville Jag, you wires. I mean, what a. What a hilarious game the other night, just so goofy. The game-winning touchdown is the guy falling down. And I still think if there's not a holding, maybe the chiefs end up tying the game or something. Just a crazy contest.

But are we talking about a Jags team that is for real? Or is it just kind of, I felt like their offense still stinks. Yeah, I mean, I was saying on WGR this week, week. Like, I had Kansas City in Survivor and lost because of it. And so I was probably just kind of bitter. But the first play of the game is Lawrence running three yards past the line of scrimmage and throwing a pass. Just like, who is this guy? And that was kind of where my head was most of the night. And it ends with his touchdown when he falls. And Chris Jones seemed to enjoy watching him go in as he just stood there. I'm not on Lawrence. Like, I just don't believe it at all. Thomas got a little bit for you in this game. Travis Hunter did a little bit for you in this game.

They still love ETN. I think, by the way, in fantasy, Hunter Long might be an interesting tight-end stream option because Brenton Strange went to IR. But I think the Seahawks are better than the Jaguars. I've been waiting for somebody to enjoy this with me. Look at the NFC West schedule this week. I think it's the most miles a division has ever flown in a week. Like everybody's going east.

San Francisco goes to Tampa, right? Like, anyway, fantasy-wise, like, ETN was a great pick. I never took him. I liked Bachel Tootin. I'm still hopeful for that. But I probably need an ETN injury, even with Tank Biggsby having been traded already. But ETN has been very good at his price so far this season.

Thomas. I mean, you're just hoping to survive that. It's the sailboat story from last week where Thomas is sort of bumping along and maybe the boat gets upright and he makes it. And, you know, Hunter is good, but one cornerback injury and then he's going to play defense in a game. And at this point of the season, I think, Matthew, team context is super important. It starts to become really important. I mentioned the Jets. The Jets could just like throw it away. I think if Garrett Wilson steps wrong, he's going to IR. There's just no point. You have this with the Ravens a little bit now, but Jacksonville, not a historically good team, has a look at it, and they're going to, you know, really want to make it. So they're going to make the most, in theory, team optimal

decisions with their personnel. And I think that's important to keep in mind with fantasy, because who's better than Garrett Wilson at football? I mean, that guy is up there on the, on the Jeff Jefferson tier. But if they're going to lose every week, he's probably going away. Well, let's talk about the wide receivers in this game because it is an interesting matchup. Brian Thomas, his over under on fan duel, 60.5 yards here. It's got to click someday. Jackson Smith Najigba, the emerging superstar of the NFL this year with Sam Darnold throwing every pass in his direction. His over under is 78.5. And Travis Hunter's is 34.5. I do think the acquisition of another corner may be signaled a little bit that

they want to see Hunter more at wide receiver. I think he would make a better corner, but, you know, they didn't ask me. Which one of those is the most interesting to you? Smith and the Jigba at 78.5, Brian Thomas at 60.5, and Hunter at 34.5. Easily JSN over. If I'm picking it over, it's him. Absolute target hog, good quarterback. Can we say that? You guys are familiar with the quarterback of the scene. I think I can say it. And if Jacksonville keeps up offensively, I mean, they should well enough for JSN to get volume in this game. There's no clear number two option there.

I like everything about that. I mean, 78.5, maybe they're trying to bait you. Puka is like close to 100 this week, which is super rare. his game for the Rams, 78 seems still pretty modest for JSN. So I would want to do that. I'm not sure what the Brian Thomas thing is going to end up being. I still don't really feel like he and Lawrence are connected. And Hunter, you're at the whim of other factors.

Like if ETN, as he's done two or three times this year, breaks a long one, and you lose whatever that chunk of the football game is to get there with one of the receivers. So I like Smith and Jigba a lot. Like there's almost no one else in their passing game that's relevant. Yeah. And with Hunter, the majority of his work came on just throw down the field and he jumped up and grabbed it, which he's very good at, but it's not like something you can do every week is just have him jump over somebody. He hasn't looked to me like a real wide receiver who lines up and runs routes and beats people and is on time with his quarterback. I also don't know

that Trevor Lawrence is ever on time with anybody. That's the thing for me. Everything always looks like he's trying to, like, this happens to you and I on the putting green, you know, where you're just trying to like, just guide it, just guy. I don't really know where it's going, but just kind of like, just push it there. And it doesn't always work for Trevor Lawrence. Let's talk about Sam Darnold. You and you and your buddy, maybe.

If I went up to Hazeltine and play with you guys this week, I'd make everything. But of course. Oh, of course. Yeah, I guess slander does not just go unchecked. Right. I guess we'll never know. I did, I did, I did play well the other day on the greens. So it hasn't rained here in a while.

And if it's, if it's rock hard greens, then I can just tap it and, you know, feel pretty good about it. But let's, let's talk about the ball. Exactly. Let's, let's talk about Sam Darnold. Here's what annoyed me last week. Sam Darnold plays this unbelievable game. His defense cannot make a stop. He's just gun slinging left, right, and center.

he hits somebody's helmet on a throw, it gets picked off, and it's, ah, guess he was seeing ghosts again, typical Sam Darnely, like, will this guy ever not have that, like quarterbacks have things happen to them sometimes. He played as well as you could play in a football game. I just give every mistake the guy, he doesn't even make mistakes at a much higher rate than anyone else. Every mistake he makes is like, oh, that's typical. It's like people want him to be the seeing ghost 20 year old,

as opposed of the very good NFL quarterback he is. 238.5. It's an interesting offense because it doesn't feel like a volume offense, but now that their defense looks vulnerable, they might need 300 yards a game from Sam Darnel. I'm not sure I would bet it, but I certainly wouldn't bet the under on him. You know, will that narrative change?

It does. It can. Someone named Bill Belichick is going through this right now, where, you know, he's an obvious Hall of Famer, best ever. We can poke holes based on this scandal or that. But of course, like, we know he's great at coaching defense and coaching teams. And now, oh, well, Cleveland and North Carolina and just like, it's just Brady now. So even a guy on the highest level can get a sort of a, it's always, it's always fluid, you know, the reputation point. I think with Darnold, he probably needs to do what he couldn't do last year, which was

win late and he went from almost an MVP level to two disastrous losses at the end on the road. I mean, against good teams. And, you know, that's that's baseball, Susan. So I think, I think it can. I think so far so good. They really could be five and oh. I mean, the Tampa loss was pretty fluky. They lost to the Niners in week one in a tough game. Otherwise, they look very good. So I like them this week. There is that west to east point. where their body clocks are going to be playing at 10 in the morning that they have to overcome. But I think he's looked really good. Yeah, I'm with you.

Also, you have to overcome spending a day in Jacksonville, which is. Well, I've done that a few times, maybe 10 in my life. And I'm here to, you know, tell the tale. I've lived through it. It's fine. It wasn't my favorite trip. One and a half point favorites are the Jags in this game and the over under 47.5. I think I would probably go Seattle

and I might go the under there because I just don't think the Jaguars are going to put up points and they have a good defense that could give Sam Darnold some problems with their pass rush. If you do go to Jacksonville, Matthew, this week or any time, make sure to look up Ying's Takey-Outy. That's...

No way, that's real. That's totally real. That can't, that sounds wrong. Okay, anyway, well... That's why it's real. You just made a great argument for not going to Jacksonville. Oh, that's not true.

How about, how about we go to San Francisco and Tampa Bay here? The San Francisco 49ers have about a fourth of their roster still remaining and yet found a way to beat the Los Angeles Rams. They are three point underdogs on Fandul to the Buccaneers here. And this one definitely goes into the category with, you know, Baker Mayfield. We'll talk about the narratives changing. But we are getting a big enough sample size. I don't know if I want to go elite,

but to at least say about Baker Mayfield that given the weapons, given Egbuka, who has emerged as an instant star right out of college, that he can put up elite performances. And I don't see any reason to think, in the off season I would have told you, I think it's going to regress. But now I don't see any reason that he's not going to be a numbers

monster going forward. It looks that way. The line being three is interesting. I guess maybe the betting market has decided every Tampa Bay game will be three or less. Like just every game is necessarily going to be super close. The Niners did a great thing winning that game against the Rams. I mean, that was just sort of classic Shanahan McVeigh in that series. They always win.

And it was Kendrick Bourne and, you know, McCaffrey, of course. but Tanges, who I had, by the way, anytime touchdown, like they are figuring, they do this. And so they're not a, you know, like an easy mark, which is obvious. Tampa Bay playing without Bucky Irving, still playing without Mike Evans. Godwin is back? Is Godwin as good as before? I mean, he's been through a lot.

It does really illustrate how good Ibuka must be because they've had these, you know, these handicaps, if you will. on their on their offense and he just gets there like it was touchdowns in the beginning and that you know the yards are there it's all there for abuka i was asked by a friend today if i would trade in dynasty malique neighbors for abuka and i said i think i would have to if i'm if i'm playing for a championship this year i would do that what's not to love there i think the closer one with neighbors by the way is o dunzae as i told my buddy like yeah that one is closer but he's been really good too. I think I would also do that. But Abuka just seems like a home run so far. So tough game to

predict because all the Tampa games are close. I'm not sure I'd want to give points, but it's also West East. They did move that game to 425, I believe. I'd moved New England, New Orleans up. So that might help the Niners a little bit. And who knows who their quarterback will be this week. I don't know that yet. Which is why I don't have props on this one because I think they probably are going to wait till there's a quarterback decision or maybe just not have that. But I think with Mack Jones, there was probably a bit of an overreaction to one game. I think that that sometimes when a quarterback plays well, it's like, look how great the quarterback played. Oh, yeah, I guess some good play calls were called as well. It's like, I've seen a lot of Kyle Shanahan doing this through the years.

And that game plan was incredible. They got the ball out so quickly, the yards after catch. I guess the one question is, and this is something that the data people would say, as I continue to heap praise on O'Connell for the short passing, is that it's not always something that you could just do week in and week out and just assume that your guys are going to get yards after catch like crazy, that a lot of times that doesn't work out that way. And sometimes it's, you know, did somebody fall down in the secondary and you get a big gain or something like that? If there is a team that's going to be able to do it, though, it's probably San Francisco, especially with Christian McCaffrey playing well.

Yeah, fantasy-wise, receivers, I wouldn't trust too much of what's already happened. I guess no pierceal again this week. Maybe you get Jennings back. Kendrick-Borne, huge game, DeMarcus Robinson, smaller game that could easily flip. You know, that's just sort of matchups and however the game flow has it.

I've been kind of lukewarm relatively unborn this week in waivers. Kind of always have liked the player, but would not expect him to repeat, which who does? Right. Other than Pukanakua and Justin Jefferson, that kind of performance. It's a little shaky there. And kittled back in week seven, it seems. So the Bucks three points favorites there, I think makes sense.

And I also have a theory that I've never looked into or tried to prove in any way, which is the best kind of theory in 2025, is that when a team has a really emotional victory. Like a really hard fought, you had to play 85 plays and it was against your rival and then it's, hey, go play somebody else. Even I thought that of week one and week two for the Vikings, where it was your division rival. It was national TV. It was this big victory for McCarthy. And then short week, you go play somebody else. And it just was not the same. So I would worry about San Francisco there. I love that. And if I may invoke the name of the great man, John McEntee, who coined the term buster theory when making picks when he and I were hanging

out a long time ago, there's no better, not that you necessarily want to dive into this game. I'm not sure I do either, but there's no better buster theory game, which is one team is getting all the flowers and the other is just getting buried this week than Indianapolis, Arizona. Another long flight for an NFC West team that keep coming because who is excited to bet Arizona and who was excited to bet against the Colts and at seven-ish it's sort of you could they just won 40 to seven right last week against the Raiders it's not it's the kind of number you could live with but I would never bet the Colts in this game because of the buster theory I I think the buster theory has some validity and the only thing you can use it the only thing that would unbuster

the buster theory is if Peyton Manning's your quarterback then it does not matter if Josh Allen if Patrick Mahomes, you probably, I mean, they have disappointments sometimes, but they probably just push everybody else through those things. Speaking of which, we have also the Detroit Lions on the road at the Kansas City Chiefs of Kansas City. Kansas City is two and a half point favorites here at home. And the over under for this on Fanduil is 52 and a half. So they are expecting fireworks there in KC. There's a, there's like two different. Different schools of analyzing this KC team, there are some folks who are saying, well, you know, they actually are better than they look, which was the opposite of last year's analysis, which is their worst than they look. And if there was no more random loss than the Jacksonville, where they get a game winning drive from Patrick Mahomes, and then all of a sudden it isn't because Trevor Lawrence, you know, and that whole thing.

So Kansas City probably is better than we think, but I don't know that they're better than the Detroit Lions. who seem to be rounding into form. There's a couple corners that are out in this game. I mean, you know, Xavier Worthy has kind of gotten back in the mix there, but I'm still feeling as the two and a half point underdog, Detroit going to KC is the stronger overall football team. It's an, that's probably right.

It's an interesting number. When a game is at two and a half, why isn't it three? Like what kind of pressure is being exhibited here to sort of keep the game at two and a half? half when I'm not a professional better at all but when I see a game at two and a half it makes me sort of want to take the points because it isn't three I also think that it's time for the chiefs to take off yeah I mean they really should have won Monday night everything success

rate 100% in the game yards per play like they sort of crushed it on offense even Kelsey like Patrick Mahomes again fantasy showpe right Is quarterback two for the season? And Kelsey is tight end five. Like, that's happening, even though we're always sort of talking down about the chiefs nowadays, I think. So is Detroit the kind of team that can scuttle that? I'm not sure. Like, they can score.

And you want to have a game as you sit down on Sunday night, as you and I will do after our golf game, just sort of exhausted. But it's central time, and it's a little bit earlier, and that helps. And we'll watch the Lions and the Chiefs, you know, score to the moon. I feel like Kansas City doing ADP chasing, Davis Maddock gets in my head. He's a Chiefs fan. And he's like, I said, what do you think about the game against Jackson? I was like, we're so back. Yeah, okay.

They are back to throwing the ball down the field. They get rice in week seven. Their schedule is rough. And they've already lost three games. But the Chargers and Broncos of each loss, too. Like, it's not out of reach. I sort of feel like we're about to get into the Kansas City, you know, zone here in the season. So here's a number that stands out to me, Fandul over under for Jemir Gibbs is 70.5 and David

Montgomery is 44.5, which speaks to how Detroit runs the football. On the other side, Kareem Hunt, still in the National Football League somehow, 30.5 yards and Isaiah Pacheco is 34.5. Those are almost similar to. to what Patrick Mahomes over under is on Van Duel. I think that there is a very serious edge of who can control the game, and I still do not buy Kansas City's defense. I mean, I don't know that anyone has been given a reason to buy Kansas City's defense all year. And if you can't play D against the Detroit Lions, they will,

and we saw this against the Ravens, and I know that they've been bad otherwise, but they will just keep pounding your face in and, like, give me overs on, the running backs here for Detroit. I would much sooner get there with Gibbs than Montgomery. Montgomery has been sort of more limited week to week. Last week against the Bengals, he had the situation where was it his sister who had been injured and like sort of everybody was out there saying that he's going to score a touchdown in the game.

They both do. But Gibbs is their clear number one. And if they're in a game with the Chiefs and the line. are often in games that are not games. I think he's the guy they'll go to, and he's proven almost like unstoppable. I was worried. I probably told you about Detroit's offense this year,

relatively speaking, because the two linemen were gone, and it's another year, you know, maybe whatever, bounces, fall differently. I just didn't want to invest in any of those guys at their price. Gibbs at 105, St. Brown at 112, like at La Porta in the third round, I didn't really want to do it, but so far so good on all of it, even Montgomery.

Jameson Williams is the wild one because when you get, girl with the curl, like when you get something from Jameson Williams, it's amazing. It's almost like everything he does is worth 10 fantasy points. But, you know, you might get one of those a week. Like you might get a James 75-yarder. I love the idea of him. He's just such a tough start in the big leagues because you could get a zero. and we've had a couple weeks in a row where he's done almost nothing.

So I like Detroit here. Are you like at Kansas City? Yes. All right. Wow. We will see how that works out. We'll settle it on the golf course. That is the, that's the game for me, though.

That's the one, like make sure I'm home from golf for that one. All right. Monday night, last games we'll touch on here. The Bills and the Falcons, the Bears and the commanders. I don't really know who the Falcons are, which might actually tell you who the falcons. are. And I, this is kind of a, uh, maybe a prove it type of moment for Caleb Williams. He's played better recently. Washington's defense has been, uh, stiff competition so far this year.

Two great games. I don't know how you feel about the double header on Monday night, but both of these games are really, really good. So why don't we start with, uh, Buffalo and Atlanta? Michael Panics on this one, hard guy to pin down a little bit this year, uh, over under on Fanduos 221.5 for Michael Pennix. Do you like that or no? No, not really. I'd be under there. The Patriots game for the Bills was a little bit of an exception to what they usually are as Diggs got off and May had to make a couple of insane plays for that to happen. This is one of the best defenses in the NFL against the pass and one of the worst against the run. I don't think their personnel is going to be much different for Monday night. They've got the

by week in week seven. So I think Atlanta wins through Bejohn Robinson and even Tyler Alger in this game. London is there. Maybe Mooney misses pits is pits. I wouldn't want to bet the quarterback over for Atlanta. But I do kind of see an under sort of game with Bill's Falcons because the bill's offense does take naps and there just is not a go-to guy.

And they did amazing things last year and much of this year. without that. But I don't love it. I mean, Atlanta has talent. They've got edge rushers. Like, they could force, they don't, these teams don't play each other. Like, they could force the bills into sort of uncomfortable situations, I would guess. And I think Atlanta can run the ball effectively here, but that could just end up in a 2320 kind of game. I don't know what the total is. I'm not sure that's even under, but the kind of game we just saw with Buffalo and New England, the bills for some weird reason decided for the first time in years not to recover all the fumbles against the Patriots.

I don't know why they thought that was a good plan. Yeah. Bad strategy. I love the Caleb Williams point. I think Washington is vulnerable. We'd love a shoot out there. Yeah. So let me hit on the,

the, the bills and Falcons point is the over unders tell a story in a lot of different ways because Bejohn Robinson is 79. And a half, which I would probably go with the over there. I would. Just because of how they're probably going to have to play and how they like to play.

James Cook is 75 and a half, which is also a pretty good number, I think. That's maybe more borderline. But the number that sticks out to me, and we've been talking about this for two years, is the top wide receiver for Buffalo is Khalil Shakir at over under 45.5 yards. When we go to a lot of these other games that have top wide receivers, we're talking 70, 80, 90. And you said it last year, everybody snacks rather than everybody eats. And that's really been the case.

Is it unfair, though? That's really the question. Is it unfair that every time the bills don't win a game, that we all just sort of like when Sam Darnold makes a mistake. It's like, ah, see a ghost, told you, even if he's got 4,500 yards and 35 touchdowns. Is it the same thing here where every single time they don't have a great game, which happens in the NFL, we go, ah, don't have a wide receiver, we all told you, or is it actually fair to say that?

I don't know. I mean, I talk about this team for hours every day at WGR. And I got to a point yesterday where I'm like, now they lost one. And any fan who's had concerns about them is right out front with how they were right. And this is why it's bad. And, you know, okay, I mean, that's fine. We really just don't know. The bills have been the same for five years.

Yeah, yeah. which has been a great team that has lost a close game in the playoffs most of the time. How can you possibly know how that's going to be different this year right now? Right. And that's even like with the general manager and his decisions in mind, you can only control so much over that. This year they bet big on defense again. And, you know, for all the people like myself and maybe yourself who talk about what they haven't,

done at receiver prior to this year, their first pick. The last two years were pass catchers. Just, you know, how good are they? I like Kincaid in this game. He broke out a little bit against New England. He's still not running that many routes or that higher percentage of the snaps or whatever. But he did make a couple of three plays like he gave you against the Patriots. You've got to clear the over easily against Atlanta. So I like him here. I feel like they want to do that again to sort of establish him as maybe the number one guy in their pass offense actually. So I mean, I feel like we just won't know the answer about the bills until it's over. And then at that point, you have to decide, well, what did you actually

learn? I mean, what did we learn last year making this point about past receivers? Because they scored 30 points a game and they scored 29 in their AFC championship loss. Oh, that was not, that was bad, actually. it's a hard one to figure out when you look at their numbers efficiency EPA all those things it's good it's uh it's at the top of the league they'll probably win 13 games uh and yet every time you see one of those big games that the offense isn't moving it's like hey that's defan diggs guy and i know he you know they made the right move at the time but it's like imagine having a number one receiver you could just pump the football to in the biggest moments uh they didn't make a serious play

it seems for someone like D.K. Mecalf who's playing pretty well for Pittsburgh, but I didn't love that with the price and his regression from last year. So where was it? Where was it out there? Where was it on the draft board? That kind of thing. Just, you know, banging the drum and saying, a receiver doesn't mean it's always the right receiver that you're going to get. So maybe the trade deadline will offer us something else other than Amari Cooper, who I thought was going to be a lot better and then turned out was really done playing football. Okay, like 30 seconds here on, before we wrap up the show on Caleb Williams versus Jayden Daniels, just, just love it for theater.

Two of the most fun players in the NFL, 236.5 on Fanduel for Caleb Williams. To me, that's an under, but I don't know. Maybe it's a good number for him. And Jaden Daniels, 221.5, which one of those would you like more for, the over for those two quarterbacks. That's close. Does McLaurin play? I mean, probably Daniels

higher than 236 and a half on Williams seems aggressive, but I do like the direction of the Bears. And I'm excited to see their rookies start to matter. Like Ben Johnson, did they not just have a buy in week five to like coming off that Hail Mary loss? Let's fire it up

with Chicago here. But I did say Daniels, didn't I? I don't really love Overon. Yes, he did. Neither over would get my money. I don't know what Washington's pass offense is going to be. Ertz doesn't get routes anymore or targets. And if McLaurin isn't ready, I just don't know the latest on that.

I like Kroski Merritt in this game. That's the guy I like on Washington. I would go. I would go Caleb because I could see them getting behind. And I also think there's a lot of numbers right now showing receivers getting open for the Bears. And if Caleb can find them. they will get a lot of yards. A Dunezay looks great. Ben Johnson's offense works. It's just you have to execute it. So how comfortable?

I think Chicago wins. Okay. All right. That would that would certainly throw a little bit of gas on the fire to the NFC North, which already looks like the closest division in football. Mike Schoep, enjoy your football Sunday. Both of us will just be watching Red Zone or however you take it in. So I really appreciate your time as always, Mike. Hit them straight. Thank you.